Sonya Butt - Service in The Women's Auxiliary Air Force

Service in The Women's Auxiliary Air Force

Sonya was only a schoolgirl at the start of the War, and would not be due to join up for at least a couple of years. Her preference was for the WAAF, as her father had served in the RAF himself, but in order to join the WAAF, a girl had to be a minimum of 17½ years old. Sonya Butt joined up the moment she became eligible, to the very day: 14 November 1941, becoming 454240 Aircraftwoman (ACW) Butt. She served in the Administrative Branch.

The girl whose quest for adventure made her join up at the age of 17 was probably not going to be stimulated by filing paperwork, but in 1941 women were banned from front-line service. In April 1942, this provision was changed and one of the first organisations to take advantage of this was the Special Operations Executive (SOE). SOE trained teams to operate 'behind the lines' in countries under Nazi occupation. The role of Courier was particularly important, as movements around a district were likely to encounter German check-points and a male of military or working age attracted adverse attention; a woman on a bicycle, however, was not suspect and if she attracted attention at all, it was usually the sort that makes a besotted sentry forget to check papers & luggage properly. SOE began to look for potential female Couriers, but the work was highly dangerous and only the toughest in mind and body could perform successfully under such pressure, so SOE had to be very demanding, very selective and very secretive. It did not advertise its vacancies and recruited by 'the usual methods': word of mouth, and other quiet and roundabout means; a skill in the appropriate language was a good starting-point. Whilst working at RAF Gosforth (alongside another future SOE Agent Patricia O'Sullivan) Sonya had been advertising her fluency in French in an attempt to get attached to the Free French squadrons and escape her dreary routine. She failed in this bid but her attempts did bring her to the attention of SOE and she was soon accepted for training. She was given an honorary commission as an Assistant Section Officer.